Maria Shriver turns out for Obama

There were the expected big guns at a final 'get-out-the-vote' rally for Barack Obama yesterday: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and Scarlett Johansson all appeared before the 3,000-strong crowd at a sports hall at the University of California, Los Angeles. But Obama wheeled out a surprise weapon in his final chance to swing voters before Super Tuesday: Maria Shriver, wife of California's 'Governator', Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnie may be a Republican - only last week he gave his endorsement to John McCain - but Shriver, a former television journalist, is a member of the powerful Kennedy clan. "The more I thought about it, I thought, you know, if Barack Obama was a state he would be California," Shriver, the daughter of Eunice Kennedy, JFK’s sister, told the crowd, to thunderous applause. "I mean, think about it - he's diverse. Open. Smart. Independent. Bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspiring. Dreamer. Leader!" After every word, the crowd shouted "yes!"

Whoever wins California, whose 15m-plus voters traditionally back Democratic candidates in presidential contests, is expected to be perceived as the front-runner in the race for the nomination. Latest polls show Obama and rival Hillary Clinton locked in a dead heat for the key state. (Continued below)

Shriver, whose uncle, Senator Edward Kennedy, and cousin Caroline Kennedy announced their support for Obama last week, made her decision to attend the rally only that morning. She said she was "not standing up here because I'm cousins with her (Caroline Kennedy), not because I'm best friends with her (Oprah Winfrey), not because I admire her (Michelle Obama). I'm standing here because I want to be here."

Meanwhile Obama can expect votes from 'Deadheads', the legions of loyal fans of the Grateful Dead. The countercultural rockers, who have been playing at political gigs since the Sixties, will tonight reform for the first time in four years to boost support for Obama, on the eve of the California primary. The surviving members of the San Francisco band – their leader Jerry Garcia died in 1995 - will play the one-off concert at the Warfield theatre in San Francisco.